Daily Journey Updates

Expedition Update

Friday, July 19, 2013

Ilulissat, Greenland

Update from Expedition Leader Geoff Green, 4pm

"The Sea Adventurer sighted the first icebergs at 10am local time; shortly
afterwards, hundreds of icebergs were in view! The icebergs were joined by
humpback whales, which came quite close to the ship. The team took some Zodiac
cruises amongst the icebergs!

After lunch, the ship navigated through the ice to the harbour at
Illulissat, arriving around 3pm. On the beautiful and sunny afternoon, they
hiked into the icefjord, which was spectacular to see. In the evening, the team
is visiting the Knud Rasmussen Museum, which is about the Danish explorer."

*******

Update from Expedition Leader Geoff Green, 7:30 PM local
time

We awoke early to an inspirational scene: the icebergs of Disko Bay amidst
the gray, blue, and white hues of a summer, overcast sky. After breakfast, we
were treated to Arctic Hour: a captivating panel on sustainable development
with a vigorous question and answer session. Then we boarded zodiacs and
navigated the the Jakobshavn ice field just off the coast from Ilulissat.
Everyone came away inspired by the myriad shapes and sizes of icebergs, bergy
bits, and growlers. Following another sensational meal - the food and service
is exceptional by every measure - we prepared to visit the community of
Ilulissat. Carefully navigating his way through a tightly clustered maze of
breathtaking bergs, our captain delivered us right to the port itself, ending
with a perfect parallel parking that few of us would have believed possible. In
groups we walked through the bristling, picturesque coastal town to nearby
Jakobshavn Icefjord, the outlet of a glacier that pours out more enough
freshwater each day in the form of icebergs to satiate New York City's entire
water use for an entire year! Against this spectacular backdrop, fending off
swarms of mosquitoes, students and staff posed for photographs and marvelled at
the Arctic's raw power and beauty. After a visit to the Ilulissat museum and
local shops, we re-embarked Sea Explorer and sat for dinner amidst a natural
art gallery of icebergs passing before us as we wound our way back towards the
ocean.

*******

After time to reflect, individually and in groups, the team is off to bed
before their big day at the town of Ummannaq's 250 Anniversary Celebration,
with the Prime Minister of Greenland!

Please check out the previous days' entries for more stories,
photos and journal entries.

Arctic Fact of the Day

The Jakobshavn Glacier, part of a World Heritage Site, produces the most
icebergs of all glaciers in Greenland. 80% of the glaciers that drift off the
coast of Labrador originate from the Jakobshavn Glacier.

The Icecap

Students produce an on-ship newsletter during the Expedition, called the
IceCap. In their first issue, students share phrases in Inuktitut and
Greenlandic, interview educators and share their photographs and drawings.

We woke up between icebergs, saw whales swimming in front of us,
went for a cruise in a zodiac between the icebergs, so unbelievably big, and
walked up the world heritage ice fjord in Ililisat. The views and emotions
cannot be explain in a couple of lines here, I feel really really privileged;
but do not worry, as you can imagine, I took a couple of pictures.

Petons, Regards, Liebe Gruesse,

Anna

******

ROSLYN BERN

Chelsey, QC

What an amazing day..What started as a cloudy day, turned into
the most magical landscape. We entered an iceberg field on our way to a small
community in Greenland. The iceberg field started to intensify, and the closer
we headed to Ilulissat, the denser the ice became. Before we entered the town,
we had all the students and staff experience zodiacs near the icebergs. We
slowly weaved between chunks and palatial structures, hearing the booming of
cracking ice, calving and rolling over. The highlights of the excursions were
the whistles and excited utterances from the students as they witnessed the
bergs close up.

If that wasn't enough of a show, we then continued heading into
the town, but the route was hampered by excessive icebergs. The captain
expertly steered within the boundaries and although it took quite a while the
spectacle was phenomenal with sunlight gleaming off the ice, reflecting the
hidden gems beneath the sea, in lively aqua.

Again, if that wasn't enough, once we arrived in town, we headed
to the UNESCO Heritage Site where we observed the most spectacular display of
icebergs and giant sculptures. The bergs were the remnants of the monstrous
glacial fjord near the town, and the sea was overfilled with debris from the
glacier. This was the same place where the film "Chasing Ice" was documented.
Unbelievable! The magical landscape surpassed Newfoundland's lonely 3 icebergs
which we once saw.

Waking up this morning we saw the first traces of icebergs moving in over
the horizon. Seeing them was one of the most amazing things I've experienced.
As we entered the icebergs, which on some occasions dwarfed the ship, we
encountered an even greater surprise. Humpback whales made their appearance on
the surface of the water. As we saw these gentle giants flicking their tails
above the icy water we kepton making our way into Disko Bay. Once we got closer
to the huge blocks of the zodiacs were lowered and an adventure on a close up
and personal level began. Once up close, looking at the bergs was on a whole
new level of understanding. The shape and variety was so vast that it prickled
my imagination to times of my childhood when tales of this wonderful land were
whispered in my ear.

The villages we have visited so far have given me an insight and better
understanding of how the people in this country live. The buildings, being
painted in almost every color imaginable, were so vibrant and bright that
it made me think, in winter times there can indeed be a glimmer of hope in a
cold and dark environment. With all the lessons being learned and topics
that have become a subject for debate knowledge has expanded and more is gained
each day.

*******

SPENCER DARVEAU
North Smithfield, RI, USA

Today was amazing! This was the first time I have ever seen an iceberg
naturally in the water. When I woke up, I immediately looked out the window and
saw my first iceberg. It was really exciting because I didn't realize how
astonishing it would be. What I've realized is that pictures do not do nature
too much justice. I took many fantastic pictures of the ice, but I know when I
get home, you will all ask why I took so many pictures of ice; well the answer
to that question (even before I return home!) is that it's simply too amazing
to not continuously admire it and take tons of pictures! We went on a zodiac
cruise to get an up close and personal look of the icebergs, which was probably
one of the most exhilarating and amazing things I've ever done in my life.
After that, we docked and went on a great hike to the ice fjord. The fjord was
also one of those times that I just needed to take tons of pictures because
there was a ginormous glacier with surrounding icebergs. The day overall was
extremely long and tiring, but it was all definitely worth it 110% (if not
more).

*******

LUCIE de MORSIER
Zurich, Switzerland

Having reached the ship was the best feeling I had for many days. I have
fallen in love with the idyllic, infinite landscape which let me forget the
issues for a moment that Greenland is facing. On deck of our new, floating home
I enjoyed the moment - a slight breeze blowing in my face, the sunshine heating
up my skin, and the very smooth vacillations signalling the beginning of our
sea adventure. As we were sitting in the dinning room waiting for a perfect
meal, a juicy conversation about the issues got started. Due to the variety of
personalities sitting at the table, from an historian to an engineer, I
realized one more time that this trip was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for
an exchange of views about delicate themes.

*******

TEGAN GALLILEE-LANG
Coquitlam, BC

I have officially dubbed this day 'iceberg day'. After looking at
pictures of the last Arctic expedition, I assumed we would experience neither
ice nor harsh cold. However, to my excitement, I woke up today in a
forest of ice with a low temperature. To be here feels unreal. I keep reminding
myself how lucky I am to be here, in a place only a handful of people have
explored. The areas we explored today are the Jakobshaven Fjord and Disko Bay.
The latter is the birthplace of most (80%) of the icebergs in the world. In
fact, it is thought that the iceberg that sunk the Titanic came from
Disko Bay. Fun fact: icebergs are made of layers of packed snow, so when there
is snowfall, a thin layer of air is trapped under it. When the ice melts, the
water around the iceberg starts to bubble because of the air under the water
being released. I also discovered today that icebergs are the clouds of
the sea in that looking closely, you start to make out shapes. Today I saw a
dragon, polar bear and a heart (brachiosephalic branch and all). I also
saw a few live humpbacks, met an adorable cat and 'awed' at the cute sledge
pups around the town of Ilulissat. I'm looking very forward to tomorrow.

******

ELIANNY HERNANDEZ

Providence, RI

Today was an awesome day! I woke up to great news which was seeing a
humpback whale . I enjoyed going on the zodiac today and seeing the icebergs
from up close. We compared the icebergs to animals because some of them were
shaped like a lion, dragon and other animals. It was a little windy but I did
wear layers so I was really warm. I also had an awesome time at Illullissat. It
was not cold and I felt really hot because of all the walking. I also entered
the super market and looked around; it was funny because we saw a juice that in
Rhode Island is called Capri Sun and in this supermarket it was called Capri
Sonne. I also loved seeing the dogs! They were so adorable and I got to pet a
puppy. Today was a great day and I am excited for more to come!

******

ANNA HICKES
Rankin Inlet, NU

Yesterday was so much fun. We went into a small village, with a population
of about 100. While I was at the store there, I tried to buy sunglasses. I had
no clue what the debit machine said, and I was used to how we insert the chip
cards in Canada. So I had to get Mika's help, and the chip goes into the top --
weird. The cashier/workers had no idea what we were saying, so I was confused.
Very funny, and embarrassing. I found the traditional clothing so beautiful!
Today is a beautiful day out, and we have seen icebergs, whales, seals, and
birds. I am not home sick at all -- I'm enjoying my time away from home, and
work. I cannot believe I'm here -- it still feels like I'm dreaming! I am
excited to upload pictures when I get home. :) I couldn't be any happier to be
here! I am looking forward to letting people about my experience, and showing
them pictures.

******

CAITLIN JAKOBSEN
Nanaimo, BC

Hi everyone!

So as you can imagine, after 6 days at sea, I was starting to miss the
family and friends that I had left behind. Sometimes you really understand how
far away you are, with the boat shifting and creaking as it pushes through the
scattered ice. Naturally I was a little sad and a little worried.

Then we went into the Jakobshaven Ice Fjord.

It is hard to describe the immensity of such spectacular bergs, but I will
do my best to convey the feeling. I went out feeling stressed. I came back
wondering where the time had gone, holding onto the boat for as long as they
would let me.

It is amazing the freedom that you feel in such a vast landscape, surrounded
by captivating, creaking giants. You were at a peace, laughing with others
amidst the furious clicking of cameras. At the same time your subconscious was
on an edge, wondering when the distant snapping would see the ice bergs
cascading into the icy arms of the sea.

Sitting there, zodiac growling softly, bundled so warm, with the Greenland
hills etching the background, I cannot begin to tell you how privileged I
feel.

And so very, very small.

******

SILAS JONES
Portugal Cove, NL, Canada

Today, I saw my first icebergs here in Greenland. They were all shapes and
sizes, cut at random angles, and pure white with light blue. They were
beautiful. We spent the early morning observing the icebergs and some
humpbacks. We boarded the zodiacs and went for a closer look. Icebergs have
many odd textures, with ridges and bumps and smooth faces. We are going into
another community this afternoon.

So this afternoon we visited Ilulissat and the Jakobshaven Ice Fjord, in
Disko Bay. Ilulissat is the third-largest city in Greenland, with a whopping
population of 5000 people. The city is a collection of brightly painted wooden
houses, and has a large soccer field.

A small aside. I just tasted whale jerky while writing. It's pretty bad.

Anyways, outside of town there was a field filled with sled dogs. We had a
time admiring the puppies. Continuing on, we reached Jakobshaven Ice Fjord. The
Fjord is at the end of a massive glacier, and as a result was filled with
Icebergs. The icebergs were truly gigantic, literal mountains of ice floating
in the sea. Their sheer size was amazing. I took many pictures, as I have done
throughout the expedition, because I hope to show you in some way the things I
have seen and experienced. A small group of us climbed a mountain, from which
the view of the Fjord was perfect.

Dinner was served soon after we returned. I ate with Stephan Dion.

The Sea Adventurer is currently headed for the community of
Uummannaq. The day is over, at least for the expedition. In summer, the
Arctic day never ends. Goodbye, and koyanuk (thank you) for reading.

******

FEFE MALTON
Houston, Texas

Hello my fellow readers. This morning we woke up in Disko Bay which is an
amazing home to glaciers big and small. It also is suspected that the legendary
iceberg that damaged the Titanic and sent it to its early grave came from here.
Once we got the boat stationary we took a zodiac cruise around all of the
bergs. Surprisingly I captured some amazing shots with my iPhone. The bergs
were spectacular with their size as well as the pure complexity. My zodiac
driver, Ian, had some great information on the bergs and what the different
patterns could tell scientists about the bergs. For example some of the
"crack"-like striations on the bergs with blue coloring was once interior river
paths where the melting water on the bergs would run off. Now those rivers have
frozen over and light now refracts in those river paths. The frozen over ice
has less oxygen compared to the other parts of the burgs. The lack of oxygen
and pureness of the frozen-over river paths, along with the refracted light,
creates the blueness in the burg. This is all very poorly put and I apologize
but I am very tired.

After we did the berg tours, we boarded back onto the ship and headed to our
community visit for the day. The community visit that we were able to
experience was called Ilulissat. We were separated into groups and then sent to
explore the land. My group first saw the museum there, which had many seal
skins and models of how traditional life is in the Arctic. Next we did a hike
up to this AMAZING view where we saw a ginormous glacier surrounded by other
smaller ones and then accented in a layer of ice-cube-like specimens.
Marvellous -- it was just marvellous. We were also able to do some shopping,
which was cool. I couldn't imagine how the people live in the Arctic. I guess
if you don't know any different it must be easier. I just couldn't imagine not
being able to have a kolache or some good ole' barbeque every once and a
while.

Needless to say, it was an amazing day and I greatly enjoyed it. Hope all my
loved ones are doing well back at home. I miss you all very much and I think of
you often. I can't wait to tell you of this amazing adventure when I get
home.

*******

MIKAELA MURPHY
St. John's NL

First of all I have to say Happy 16th Birthday to my brother Liam. I can't
wait to see you when I get back and I'll try to find you a really cool birthday
gift while I'm here.

Yesterday was absolutely amazing as it was our first real day here in the
Arctic. In the morning we went to shore to a kind of isolated area which
reminded me a lot of Cape Spear back home. I was on one of the first Zodiacs
out which meant that I had over an hour to explore the land. First I climbed up
a little "mountain" and admired the view until I noticed two guys on top of the
biggest mountain we could get to and a whole bunch of people heading for them.
So myself and the others I was with of course started to head over as well. The
climb up was not easy but we all helped each other out. The view from the top
was absolutely amazing! The climb down was way harder than the climb up
especially for those who had shorter legs than mine but again we all worked
together to form hand steps and give shoulders to lean on on the way down. Sam
apparently does that kind of stuff a lot so he was a great help to a lot of
us,.

By the time we got back everyone else has already started breaking into 8
groups and had to scramble to find one (but it was so worth it). I ended up in
the water life section which was awesome. We got to see water beetle larva
(which weren't actually as gross as they sound), faerie shrimp and one adult
water beetle.

In the afternoon we headed out to see a little community which again
reminded me of home with all the coloured houses in random little places. There
were so many cool little things hanging from their houses like fish and skins.
The church was so quaint and beautiful and so was the cemetery. The people
there were so nice even when they beat our team at soccer.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed and we had another Arctic Hour where
we learned about some of the locals culture all across the Arctic. It was such
and amazing day and its looking like today is going to be the same way.

*******

ROSALIE OQALLAK
Arctic Bay, NU

During the morning it was so fun going on the zodiacs. Looking at the
icebergs was awesome; we touched the iceberg and I thought it would be so soft
but it wasn't . When we were waiting for the the others going back on the ship
we went zigzagging on the zodiac really fast, with Alex, Shirley, and
Kristine.

We went on the land of Illulissat to visit and hike to see the fjord; it was
so huge.

We had to go back on the Sea Adventurer and started heading to Uummannaq
tomorrow. We will be there to visit the place :D

*******

ROSIE POIRIER
London, ON

Hi everyone,

So today, I SAW A WHALE! A REAL LIVE WHALE. ACTUALLY, TWO OF THEM! IT WAS SO
EXCITING!

My dream of seeing a whale has now been fulfilled. The two that we saw were
both humpback whales feeding in Disko Bay. A couple of seals peeked out of the
water to say hello at around the same time.

Another neat thing happened today during our zodiac cruise. We were going
around ice and icebergs and we came up to a very large one. Cameras were pulled
out to take pictures when all of a sudden a huge resounding boom filled the
air. It was the ice cracking and it almost sounded like thunder.

This trip is getting more exciting and wonderful by the day, and I'm looking
forward to all of the experiences to come!

Lots of love,
Rosie

*******

SAMUEL ROSS
Ottawa, Ontario

Today we had a series of amazing events happen. My favourite was seeing the
second iceberg flip. While many people were still having dinner there was a few
of us out on the bow of the ship. As we were approaching a small iceberg it
calved. Nothing big just a few feet of ice but it was enough to unbalance it
and make it flip. It was simply stunning to see that something so big could be
affected by such a small loss. It is like the straw that broke the camels back.
Once it flipped it began to lose a lot of snow and ice. The newly released snow
and ice spread out over a huge area of the water, and as amazing and skillful
as our captain is, we plowed right through all this new ice. Earlier in the day
we went on a zodiac cruise around some very large icebergs. While we were out
near one of them a sound like thunder hit us like a storm. A huge crack
appeared from the base to the summit of the iceberg that we were sitting not 50
feet from. Our zodiac driver got us out of there so fast we didn’t know what
happened. The iceberg never actually calved while we were out there but it was
still quite exciting to see the crack appear so fast and so loudly. It was a
great example of global warming happening. The area where we were today, Disko
Bay, is one of the highest populated area of icebergs in the world. The bay was
filled with lots of small icebergs, what we call bergy bits, and only a handful
of large ones. This is due to the temperatures being higher than before so more
of the icebergs are calving and becoming smaller. Overall it was quite the
amazing and fun day.

*******

BAILEY TARRANT
Lawn, Newfoundland

There is nothing more amazing than waking up to whale watching and a sea of ice
bergs. All around the ship were huge masses of ice; and I've seen ice bergs
before but never this many. Everywhere we go there are these majestic things;
even thought the scenes from Titanic we replaying in my head. Then the whales
started to surface and we even saw a few seals. After we got on the zodiacs and
got to see the ice up close and I can now say I've dipped my hands in Arctic
waters.
-Bailey

*******

CHALICE WALKER

Fernie, British Columbia, Canada

The day of the iceburg. We awoke this morning in Disko Bay, to horizons
studded with ice, and were later informed that we would be disembarking the
ship into the Zodiacs from our location seven miles off the west coast of
Greenland. Minutes later, bundled up and smiling, we stepped down the steep
metal steps to the Zodiac loading zone. I find it extremely difficult to
describe the feeling of sitting in a small inflatable boat amidst thousands of
icebergs the size Manhattan island, or maybe bigger! And that's just the
visible part! All of the ice comes from a glacier that stems from the Greenland
icecap, and moves slowly down into a broad fjord, which we hiked up to see
later. The icebergs in the fjord are so massive that the only way to scale them
is to imagine the number of turns that it would take to ski down it. Some felt
like more than eight turns! Icebergs make a person feel small. Giant monuments
of the ocean, shrouded in mystery, with so much of them hidden and yet the
parts that are visible still manage to take your breath away. It's too easy to
undermine the quality of this experience using words or pictures; they aren't
enough. To experience the Arctic, the expansive, beautiful and remote place on
the Earth that we are now a small piece off, you have to be there. You just
have to see it, its so amazing.

*******

DAVID WEBSTER
Iqualuit, NU

The past few days have been absolutely spectacular. There are a lot of
wonderful people on this ship. Today we managed to reach the ice! The icebergs
are extremely gorgeous! Early this morning we saw a few humpback whales, and
seals! It was absolutely fantastic! The animals and ice are so gorgeous. There
are a lot of people on the ship who have never seen this much ice before, and
the reactions on their faces are priceless!